Song of My Body

i. Field Song
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 6

A chance turn immerses me
butterflies birdsong buzzing

amid a low-railed field of untamed yellow
I want
to wander through

prairie dock, goldenrod, false sunflower
spilling over the curving path
I walk the afternoon around.

ii. Meadow Song
Bushkill Falls, PA

If I speak of the field
it is also so that I can speak of the meadow

I played in as a young child
wildflowers up to my chin

older cousins name queen Anne’s lace,
black-eyed Susans,

cone flowers, daisies & garlands &
loves me/loves me not …

Across the road, the house. Once
a hotel. Room for all the cousins.

Five minute walk to the Delaware River.
Lugging fat inner tubes. Cornfield on the way.

After swim, husking ears. Dinner.
Fireflies at dusk.

iii. Music

Field and Meadow at different ends of my life.
Both in the song of my body.
Both my body’s song.

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Karen Neuberg is the author of the full-length poetry collection, PURSUIT (Kelsay Press), and three chapbooks including the elephants are asking (Glass Lyre). Her poetry has appeared in numerous online and print journals and anthologies, including Gyroscope, Mackinaw, Unbroken, and Vita Poetica. She holds an MFA from The New School and lives in Brooklyn, NY.